Page 17 - Gwen Landsberry - Memories Memento for Family

Dulcie and her husband rented property and began farming chickens, becoming the first provider of dressed
chickens to butchers in the area. Previously if someone wanted a chook, it had to be ordered the day before
and killed. They went on to ship chickens to Melbourne and Sydney. Later they inherited acreage, and finally
had the chance to move to their own property.

We dropped by St Joseph’s Church to check the
time of the Saturday night service. This is the
church the O’Brien’s often attended. It felt rich and
warm like red velvet, peopled with memories of the
past. Mum and I lit candles and knelt and prayed
together for family past and present.

When we went back for service at 6.30 that
evening, we sat close up front, holding hands. And
after service met Father and so many people
outside the church. I got talking with Anne
Heffernan and Mum talked with her husband and
daughter – old memories. They remembered the O’Brien’s.

Next morning off to Shirley Devlin’s (Burmister) in Prince
Street Junee for an early morning cuppa before heading
up to Temora and Margaret and Bill’s for a country roast
dinner. How delighted Shirley and Arthur were to see
Mum and meet me. Shirley said that Marie had died from
a type of aggressive anaemia – that her ‘white blood cells
ate her red blood cells’. Shirley remember Marie and
Mum being close and had found Mum’s letters when she
went through Marie’s things. Arthur had obviously loved
her too and said when we walked in ‘so you’re a friend of
my old mates’. Shirley had been Anne’s age and said she
was not at all surprised when Anne entered the convent.
She felt it was what she was meant to do. She also said that Graham Fawcett had always had a crush on
Claire and that he’d put an axe through a number of the girls’ bicycle wheels one day!

We headed out of town and up toward Temora, taking the long way: Combaning Road filled with names,
lanes and farms that Mum knew when growing up on Cooberang. We saw Loma Langi Road where the
Burmisters had grown up, headed past Ken Ewes property, now a winery. We found out that Junee Reefs got
its name from ‘reef’ gold discovered during the 1860’s, and that it had been a gold rush town and then one
of the most important railway centres in the state centering around the Junee Roundhouse. Now of course
Junee is a township known for lamb, canola, steel fabrication and cropping.

We finally reached Temora and spent a wonderful afternoon with Margaret (nee Casey) and Bill, with Mum
catching up on so much news old and new, and me finding pieces of the family puzzle fitting so well
together. Margaret’s father was Uncle Roy Casey and Mum’s absolute favourite uncle. She used to visit them
during school holidays, once they moved to Sydney, feeling very grown up on the long train trip in her Monte
school uniform.

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